Maybe that is a little too militaristic! After all some weeds are pretty, some are useful, and many aren't too much of a problem. And what is the difference between a weed and a wildflower? Not much! However, Dig In does have a bit of a perennial weed problem, something inherited from before Dig In began, when those allotment plots were unused for many years. Perennial weeds are ones which go on for years and years, often with long roots underground - many of us remember them!
As well as digging out, there are other ways of keeping down weeds like this. One is to shade them out with mulch. A mulch is anything laid on the soil surface, from a layer of compost to landscape fabric with woodchippings on top, they are all mulch. We've used newspapers and woodchip to reduce the couch grass round the herbs and raspberries at Dig In. This slowly decomposes and feeds the soil too, and is an environmental option. However it is best used on perennial crops, so a different approach is needed on the Sunray Beds where we grow annual vegetables.
For years we have used black plastic sheeting to keep out the light through the winter months. This isn't a common technique, usually landscape fabric which lets water through is a better option for healthy soil. But Dig In gets very wet in the winter, being at the bottom of the hill, the water drains down. Some years the lawn is like a pond! So the soil stays healthy under the plastic, and the weeds are reduced. Plastic degrades over time, and after about 10 years use we needed to replace the plastic sheets. We found some made of recycled plastic to be less un-environmental, and last week Karen went to collect it, helped - at a distance - by Kath. Then was the fun of laying it out and cutting to size!
Eventually all but one unplanted bed covered - hopefully massively reducing the weeding time spent by volunteers!
[Whilst Dig In is closed during lockdown, Karen and a skeleton crew are keeping an eye on things ready for volunteers to come back]
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